In annual ritual, AT&T declared worst wireless service

Verizon leads big four but Consumer Reports finds small carriers to be the best.

Each year, Consumer Reports surveys some 60,000 cell phone subscribers to find out which service providers are the best and worst. AT&T is on a real hot streak in these rankings—a hot streak of finishing dead last in customer satisfaction.

AT&T did score one real win in the latest rankings, released today, with its 4G service being rated better than all of its competitors. "Its users reported the fewest problems with that higher-speed service, which most new smart phones now use," Consumer Reports noted. But AT&T was the worst or tied for worst in all other categories, including value, voice, text, data, and support. AT&T's overall score for standard service customers was 62 out of 100. That's just behind rivals Sprint and T-Mobile, well behind Verizon Wireless, and even further behind small carriers Consumer Cellular, US Cellular, and Credo Mobile:

Enlarge/ Solid red circles are best, solid black worst, with white in the middle. Consumer Cellular's asterisk denotes that it offers no-contract service but bills monthly like standard carriers.

Scores were based on responses from 63,235 ConsumerReports.org subscribers who were surveyed in September 2012. The above rankings are for standard service, the type billed at the end of the month, often under a contract. AT&T was also last in its prepaid service:

Enlarge/ Prepaid service won't give you any of the hottest smartphones.

AT&T finished last among the four major carriers in a bunch of major cities too, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Denver. (Verizon lead the way in all those cities.) Sprint wrestled away the worst service crown from AT&T in Chicago, a city in which US Cellular is tops.

Consumer Reports cautions that differences of five points in score are not meaningful. So you could say Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T were tied for last in standard service. Consumer Reports thus described AT&T as being only "among the lower-scoring providers" for 2012. But the trend for AT&T is hard to ignore. One year ago, Consumer Reports said AT&T was rated worst carrier for the second year in a row, giving it the crown in 2010 and 2011. AT&T was also the worst in 2009, when it was the sole iPhone provider, according to a New York Times report from that year. In 2009 however, perhaps AT&T finished last by a small enough margin to escape Consumer Reports' official "lowest" designation.

Verizon Wireless topped the rankings of major carriers in 2009 and continued to do so every year since. But AT&T is trying to look on the bright side. "While delivering an even better customer experience is a never-ending job, we're pleased that our customers rate their 4G experience as best of any carrier," an AT&T spokesperson told Ars in an e-mailed statement. "We’ve invested significantly to deliver unique advantages, including offering the nation’s largest 4G network, which enables the fastest iPhone 5 downloads and simultaneous talk and surf."

Consumer Reports noted that Verizon Wireless led major carriers with "favorable scores for voice and data service quality, and also for support attributes like staff knowledge and resolution of issues." But Verizon's score of 72 was easily bested by US Cellular and Consumer Cellular's scores of 85 and 88, respectively. Put another way, both Consumer Cellular and US Cellular beat Verizon by larger margins than Verizon beat AT&T.

"US Cellular was top-rated almost across the board but isn’t nationally available and has only two high-profile phones, the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II," Consumer Reports said. "But if either phone appeals, this carrier is worth considering if you live in one of the 24 states where it’s available (in the Midwest, Pacific Coast, and parts of New England and the South). Plan pricing tends to be on a par with AT&T, but readers judged US Cellular to be a much better value than any of the four biggest carriers."

AT&T's 4G victory is an important one, and well worth crowing about (even though AT&T courted controversy by temporarily limiting Apple's FaceTime video chat technology over LTE). AT&T won't lose its status as one of the two biggest US carriers anytime soon, but lagging behind Verizon year after year in most customer satisfaction metrics can't be helping the company attract new subscribers.

What's the best choice? Depends what you're looking for

Consumer Reports calls Verizon the best bet for customers looking for the most advanced technology and strong nationwide data service. AT&T isn't a bad choice for people looking for marquee phones, either, despite its low satisfaction scores. "With its superior scores and wide array of marquee phones, Verizon is your best bet overall among national carriers. AT&T, though it rates lower than Verizon in most respects, is also worth considering for want-it-all types because of its top 4G network rating and lower pricing for people who have lighter data, voice, and messaging needs," Consumer Reports said.

If you need 2GB of data per month as well as unlimited voice and texting, AT&T ends up being more expensive, the report said. Across all carriers, top-tier smartphones and service usually cost about $2,500 or more over a two-year period.

If you're buying for a crowd rather than just yourself, Consumer Reports advises to "Consider US Cellular if you live in its service area. It was one of the top carriers in the Consumer Reports National Research Center annual survey, which covered 23 metro areas. It offers one of the lowest-priced family plans—$190 a month for a family needing two basic and two smart phones. The plan includes 2,000 voice minutes, unlimited messages, and 4GB of data service."

If you want smartphone features but not necessarily the best and most expensive devices, the advice is to "buy a smart phone that performs well, maybe an older model. Use it with an inexpensive unlimited voice, texting, and data plan from a no-contract carrier with standout scores for data service. Two-year cost for phone and service: about $1,500 and up." One option in this category is "prepaid Straight Talk, which was more satisfying overall than contract service from any major carrier."

If you're looking for just the basics, perhaps even a phone that's not a smartphone (the horror!) then Consumer Cellular may be your best bet. The carrier uses the AT&T network, while offering a $15 plan with 150 voice minutes a month, $30 for 750 minutes, and as little as $2.50 for 100 text messages per month.

One other tidbit noted by Consumer Reports is the cost of upgrading early among major carriers. If you're a Verizon customer and want to upgrade to a 16GB Samsung Galaxy SIII halfway through your two-year contract, the cost is $600, including upgrade fees and penalties. Doing the same on AT&T or T-Mobile costs $486 or $483, respectively. Sprint charges $586 for the early upgrade.

101 Reader Comments

As a straight talk user, I'm pretty happy. Sure, as your caption points out, it didn't GIVE me any of the hottest or newest smart phones, but go buy a Nexus 4 and get a SIM for your choice of T-mobile or AT&T's networks. I'm running ST on a Galaxy Nexus on AT&T's network and it's pretty great. It's $45/mo for everything. Doing that with T-mo or Verizon or AT&T on contract is pushing twice that, especially after taxes. Put that money towards a nice phone and it's paid for itself inside a year.

Postpaid is the way of the dinosaur, but I need people to keep going postpaid so they can pay for infrastructure.

I have had Verizon for years, with only a brief 2 year stint at AT&T. Frankly, it's night and day. Service is just BETTER with Verizon, and in almost every location I will have better signal and faster data speeds than my wife's AT&T iPhone.

Say what you want about cost, and Verizon does charge too much, in my opinion, but they provide the best class of service for anyone who needs a large coverage area. I live in indianapolis and get 4G coverage everywhere, including out in the far suburbs. It's no surprise Verizon consistently wins out of the big 4 carriers.

I am a bit confused about why AT&T would get a better 4G rating. I wasn't aware AT&T had much of a 4G network yet.

As a straight talk user, I'm pretty happy. Sure, as your caption points out, it didn't GIVE me any of the hottest or newest smart phones, but go buy a Nexus 4 and get a SIM for your choice of T-mobile or AT&T's networks. I'm running ST on a Galaxy Nexus on AT&T's network and it's pretty great. It's $45/mo for everything. Doing that with T-mo or Verizon or AT&T on contract is pushing twice that, especially after taxes. Put that money towards a nice phone and it's paid for itself inside a year.

Postpaid is the way of the dinosaur, but I need people to keep going postpaid so they can pay for infrastructure.

Is the data on ST actually unlimited (I'm assuming they throttle after some point at least)? I'm considering getting the Nexus 4 and was looking at my options (T-Mobile pre-paid also looked promising, maybe even cheaper since I don't need unlimited voice).

I had Verizon for a couple years, and after a while they were bumping up my bill by $5 to $10 a month. I contacted them asking for a reason, which they refused to give me, and so I told them if they don't do something to remedy the situation, I was going to leave their service. My next bill came, and it was a $15 jump! So, I switched to T-Mobile, this was a couple weeks after the G1 (the first Android phone) had come out, and I have been extremely satisfied with their service for the last 3 years.

As a straight talk user, I'm pretty happy. Sure, as your caption points out, it didn't GIVE me any of the hottest or newest smart phones, but go buy a Nexus 4 and get a SIM for your choice of T-mobile or AT&T's networks. I'm running ST on a Galaxy Nexus on AT&T's network and it's pretty great. It's $45/mo for everything. Doing that with T-mo or Verizon or AT&T on contract is pushing twice that, especially after taxes. Put that money towards a nice phone and it's paid for itself inside a year.

Postpaid is the way of the dinosaur, but I need people to keep going postpaid so they can pay for infrastructure.

Is the data on ST actually unlimited (I'm assuming they throttle after some point at least)? I'm considering getting the Nexus 4 and was looking at my options (T-Mobile pre-paid also looked promising, maybe even cheaper since I don't need unlimited voice).

I've heard they throttle over about 2Gigs, but I've been with them for nearly a year now, and I haven't noticed any throttling at all. Streaming pandora one to and from work should push my data use up reasonably. That said, I don't know my exact data use (it's unlimited, so I don't pay attention).

I know it's the huge nerd in me, but a company can have the best customer service, best phones, best prices...but it's all worthless if their network sucks. I've been on Sprint for about a year now, love my phone, I've had stellar service when I had to warranty exchange, and the concept of unlimited data is fantastic.

The only problem is I've had to force my phone to roam on Verizon, otherwise I barely get a connection. Living in a major metro area. Unlimited data isn't that great when I can only get 25KBps over 3G.

So, I hope they weighted each category appropriately. Obviously replace Sprint with your hated carrier of choice in the above.

Not a lot of content to add, but perhaps an interesting data point: I'm a previous AT&T customer (with an iPhone). I unlocked my iPhone through AT&T & Apple, then switched to T-Mobile pre-paid plan to use with my iPhone. Everything works very well. And my plan is now $50/mo for unlimited talk/text/web. 2G Speeds, though, but I primarily use it for texting, Nike+ GPS, and Google Maps. All of which take (on average) just a couple seconds more to load.

I am a bit confused about why AT&T would get a better 4G rating. I wasn't aware AT&T had much of a 4G network yet.

4G service is highly variable depending on where you live. Here in Phoenix, AT&T has screaming fast LTE. It's consistently 10-20% faster than Verizon's LTE in the same location. I've gotten up to 45Mbps on my AT&T iPhone 5 (although usually a bit less than that). The fastest speed I've seen on a Verizon iPhone 5 is somewhere in the 25Mbps range. More to the point, if you have them side-by-side, the AT&T variant has always had faster LTE speeds.

YMMV. I am acutely aware that by "always faster," I'm meaning "since AT&T finally brought LTE to Phoenix" -- Verizon had it here a good year before AT&T.

I am eating crow, but when considering my upgrade to an iPhone 5 from my 3GS, I was going to switch from ATT to Verizon. I have an "old" unlimited data plan with ATT and to switch over to Verizon and get the same data, was going to be much more per month. So I reluctantly stuck with ATT.

I have to admit, the 4G data is blazing fast and hasn't let me down since I activated my new phone. I live in the Raleigh, NC area, and the 4G coverage here for ATT is quite good. I don't travel that much, so not sure how spotty it is elsewhere but so far I couldn't be happier with fast/consistent data speeds...and I swear my call quality is much better and more consistent too than with my older iphone.

Anyway, I think I have the best deal in America: a Nokia N9, which gets classified as a feature phone on AT&T's network. I get unlimited 3.5G data, and text with my minimal voice plan for $66 total a month. It has a web kit 2.0. Anything android can do it can do. It is showing its age though, being only a single core, and the resolution is low by today's standards. But it's $66/mo!

Not a lot of content to add, but perhaps an interesting data point: I'm a previous AT&T customer (with an iPhone). I unlocked my iPhone through AT&T & Apple, then switched to T-Mobile pre-paid plan to use with my iPhone. Everything works very well. And my plan is now $50/mo for unlimited talk/text/web. 2G Speeds, though, but I primarily use it for texting, Nike+ GPS, and Google Maps. All of which take (on average) just a couple seconds more to load.

I'm willing to suffer a few seconds for $50+ a month in savings.

I did that for a while, but if you get the chance, I recommend Straight Talk. Same feature set, but with the added bonus of unlimited 3G and AT&T coverage.

I've been on 4 carriers since I first went smartphone. T Mobile (G1), Sprint (EVO 4G), ATT 4Work (Infuse), and now Verizon (Galaxy S3). I can honestly say without hesitation that while I'm paying more on Verizon its network kicks the competition's ass. However I am not happy with how aggressive they are with people who want to mod their phones. That is almost enough to make me drop them when my contract is up in 1.5 years.

I've been with AT&T for close to 10 years or more, from when they were Cingular, and were a TDMA network. I've never really had issues with call quality or service around here (Chicago suburb). Recently, we moved a few miles away (still in the middle of a large swath of "full coverage" area), and I get weird areas in my house with almost no coverage.

That started me looking at Sprint and Verizon (T-Mo is terribad here, and US Cellular doesn't offer 4G here). In both cases, I'd end up paying at least $50 more for the same exact features. I don't know why they're so much more expensive.

Money's just too tight for me to pay $175+ for two smartphones (after taxes and fees) every month when I'm currently paying ~$125 after taxes and fees now.

As a straight talk user, I'm pretty happy. Sure, as your caption points out, it didn't GIVE me any of the hottest or newest smart phones, but go buy a Nexus 4 and get a SIM for your choice of T-mobile or AT&T's networks. I'm running ST on a Galaxy Nexus on AT&T's network and it's pretty great. It's $45/mo for everything. Doing that with T-mo or Verizon or AT&T on contract is pushing twice that, especially after taxes. Put that money towards a nice phone and it's paid for itself inside a year.

Postpaid is the way of the dinosaur, but I need people to keep going postpaid so they can pay for infrastructure.

Is the data on ST actually unlimited (I'm assuming they throttle after some point at least)? I'm considering getting the Nexus 4 and was looking at my options (T-Mobile pre-paid also looked promising, maybe even cheaper since I don't need unlimited voice).

My first month with ST my Galaxy Nexus showed 2.1 GB used and I received two phone calls from straight talk informing me that if I did not curb my data usage my account would be terminated.

I continued to receive these calls at least once a week for the next month (even though my usage was under 2GB). I noticed that my data rates had been throttled to the point of EDGE level speeds so I quit straight talk and let them keep the rest of my 2nd month and went to T-Mobile prepaid which has been great except for debt collection calls to the previous owner of the number. A issue common to most prepaid plans.

The present AT&T wireless used to be Cingular wireless. Cingular which was the previous king of bad wireless companies bought AT&T wireless in 2004. In 2007 Cingular began it's transition to the 'new AT&T', which became just 'AT&T' wireless in 2009.

If this present AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular) continues it's pattern it is only a matter of time before they buy any wireless company with a better reputation, then change the name over and drive the newly purchased reputation into the ground.

As an unhappy verizon customer, I'm very interested in switching when my contract expires, unfortunately not until 2013. US Cellular isn't really on the east coast much, but Consumer Cellular and Credo are both options for me. Credo uses Sprint's network. Consumer Cellular uses AT&T's network. I like that Credo is a Working Assets division, and contributing something in that way seems like a better alternative then giving money to Verizon.

Maybe it's because I don't live in a major metropolitan area, but I've been pretty happy with AT&T. They were the first with proper service to my town, so I switched from Verizon, and they've been fine for me so far...

If this present AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular) continues it's pattern it is only a matter of time before they buy any wireless company with a better reputation, then change the name over and drive the newly purchased reputation into the ground.

I worked for Cingular as a sales rep before, during, and after the transition/buyout, and let me tell you... AT&T Wireless had a terrible reputation. The only reason people didn't complain about them more was that they were dirt cheap.

In my book, Verizon is at the bottom of the barrel, followed by Hell, followed by all the other mobile service providers. Verizon lost me as a customer years ago and I will never go back after the shit I went through with them. AT&T has never given me any serious problems. Maybe 1-2 dropped calls a year on average, which is a perfectly acceptable rate. Data works fine 99% of the time. Honestly the only time I have data problems is when I am juuuuust on the edge of a wireless network and my phone doesn't know to switch to the cell data network, which is the phone and not the service.

Unfortunately if you use an iPhone and want voice and data at the same time AT&T is the only game in town.

False. This is a limitation of CDMA, not a benefit of AT&T. Any GSM network (in the states, primarily AT&T and T-Mobile) can carry both voice and data traffic at the same time. CDMA fixed this with WCDMA, which can carry both. But the only one using widespread WCDMA is Verizon. So, simply put: if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile, you can do both voice+data simultaneously, OR if you're on Verizon and have a 4G signal (as opposed to just 3G or lower) you can do voice+data simultaneously.

Is the data on ST actually unlimited (I'm assuming they throttle after some point at least)? I'm considering getting the Nexus 4 and was looking at my options (T-Mobile pre-paid also looked promising, maybe even cheaper since I don't need unlimited voice).

I don't know, exactly. I rarely use more than 50-60MB/day (usually much less) and I don't think I've ever eclipsed 1GB of data in a month. The HowardForums people seem to think that if you go much beyond 100MB/day or 2GB/mo that they'll do something about it, but I haven't ever tested. I just have Google Play set to only update apps over wifi, and Youtube seems to work fine.

FWIW as Nirelyn said, T-mobile has a better deal if you don't use voice at all (or very little, or with Google Voice) but in my case T-Mobile is too spotty around me. I started out with their prepay and switched to an AT&T-based ST account. I was able to port my number from T-mo to ST, and I assume the reverse is true as well.

Unfortunately if you use an iPhone and want voice and data at the same time AT&T is the only game in town.

False. This is a limitation of CDMA, not a benefit of AT&T. Any GSM network (in the states, primarily AT&T and T-Mobile) can carry both voice and data traffic at the same time. CDMA fixed this with WCDMA, which can carry both. But the only one using widespread WCDMA is Verizon. So, simply put: if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile, you can do both voice+data simultaneously, OR if you're on Verizon and have a 4G signal (as opposed to just 3G or lower) you can do voice+data simultaneously.

Well if you use an iPhone in the US, T-mobile isn't equipped for your 3G data...yet. They're refarming PCS spectrum to do 3G since their AWS spectrum is going to be used for LTE down the road. It has the side effect of giving 3G to 1900MHz 3G phones, like the iPhone.

The present AT&T wireless used to be Cingular wireless. Cingular which was the previous king of bad wireless companies bought AT&T wireless in 2004. In 2007 Cingular began it's transition to the 'new AT&T', which became just 'AT&T' wireless in 2009.

If this present AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular) continues it's pattern it is only a matter of time before they buy any wireless company with a better reputation, then change the name over and drive the newly purchased reputation into the ground.

Cingular was a joint venture created in 2000 by Southwestern Bell and BellSouth.

In 2006, AT&T(really Southwestern Bell as it has purchased the remains of AT&T in 2005 and taken the name) acquired the rest of Cingular via the BellSouth acquisition

If this present AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular) continues it's pattern it is only a matter of time before they buy any wireless company with a better reputation, then change the name over and drive the newly purchased reputation into the ground.

I worked for Cingular as a sales rep before, during, and after the transition/buyout, and let me tell you... AT&T Wireless had a terrible reputation. The only reason people didn't complain about them more was that they were dirt cheap.

AT&T Wireless was the old McCaw Cellular. I don't reallly recall them being the cheapest.

I am coming up on my 12th consecutive year with Sprint (I was with Nextel when Sprint took them over technically) and I have no serious plans on changing. Their customer service as been nothing less than stellar, forgiving me on $300-400 bills on at least 3 occasions due to over usage beyond the coverage of my plan. They adjusted my plan, make the huge bill go away. My only complaint was my last contract signing i ended up increasing my bill by $30/month for less features (just minutes and i dont call hardly at all) but really that was because I rode a loophole plan setup for several years getting me a sweet plan.

I am no smartphone power user, I have low end android phone which works for me minus the terribad onboard storage. I just need a lot of data and a phone that will use Pandora and Slacker Radio without a hitch as I probably average around 5-6 hours of one or the other on any given work day. Oh yea and a physical keyboard, that is a must for me, I text and do a bit of browsing and contest touch keyboards -_-

If they have coverage you need, they're pretty good to deal with. As far as I know, they're the only one of the big four to offer you a discount if you don't "subsidize" your device. It's amusing that people say "subsidize", as AT&T won't give me a discount when my 2 years is up.

Consumer cellular should be at the bottom of the pile based on their horrible commercials alone =D

That being said, the national carriers seem equally terrible to me, so these polls are kind of a waste of time. They all have crappy customer service reps (there are a few good ones sprinkled in, I know), they all drop calls, they all have coverage gaps, they all charge too much, and they all put restrictions in place that seem outrageous.

AT&T gives me a decent discount through my employer and that's about as much as I can ask for.

I am a bit confused about why AT&T would get a better 4G rating. I wasn't aware AT&T had much of a 4G network yet.

4G service is highly variable depending on where you live. Here in Phoenix, AT&T has screaming fast LTE. It's consistently 10-20% faster than Verizon's LTE in the same location. I've gotten up to 45Mbps on my AT&T iPhone 5 (although usually a bit less than that). The fastest speed I've seen on a Verizon iPhone 5 is somewhere in the 25Mbps range. More to the point, if you have them side-by-side, the AT&T variant has always had faster LTE speeds.

YMMV. I am acutely aware that by "always faster," I'm meaning "since AT&T finally brought LTE to Phoenix" -- Verizon had it here a good year before AT&T.

Also have to realize that when AT&T talks about 4G they aren't always talking about their LTE network, they also lump in their HSPA+ network -- which is technically 4G but not as fast as LTE. Where Verizon's 4G is mostly (all?) LTE.

A T & T cellular lies about its coverage. Recently they added latitude and longitude capability. It allowed me to pinpoint our location. 3G it said. No work...2 Samsung Rugby II's good only for in town. I spoke with a company representative in Quebec and asked her to call my cellphones in California. She said, "We might be able to call you when you can't reach the nearby tower on your cellphone!" Huh? This is due to routing she said. So, sure enough...she could call both my phones and we could converse very well from any location in my area......but I can't call either of my cellphones from my landline phone or from either cellphones from the same location. There was one success...stand in the parking lot with both cellphones, complete a connection.....then I could continue the conversation between both cellphones all over the area.

No surprise. AT&T is not focused on its customers. I upgraded to an HTC One X phone which came with an additional 23GB free Dropbox storage, according to the sales rep, the owners manual and various advertisements (integrated into HTC Sense 4.0). But without warning, and without giving any reason, AT&T pulled the plug on that, leaving customers with a measly 8GB available on a phone that does 1080p video, a meager 2GB free Dropbox account, and stuck with it for a two-year contract.

I've been on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, and at least in my area, AT&T is by far the best service. Sprint jerked me around for years on rates and billing screw-ups. Verizon dropped calls like they were going out of style (they finally sent some kind of mini tower signal booster, but it never worked) and also found every way to F* up my bill. AT&T hasn't always been perfect in its coverage, but I'm happiest with them by far.

I've been pleased to drop Comcast cable in favor of AT&T Uverse as well, and I'm equally happy.

The one thing I hate about AT&T is the vultures at their stores. They swoop in before your eyes can even adjust to the indoor lighting. I'll ask for help when I'm good and ready!